Retired Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett

NGAUS President

Retired Tennessee Army National Guard Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett succeeded retired Brig. Gen. Stephen M. Koper, as president of the National Guard Association of United States on Jan. 1, 2010.

General Hargett is the chief executive officer of NGAUS. He is responsible for the association’s day-to-day operations in Washington, D.C., and a staff of 28 employees. He also oversees the National Guard Educational Foundation, which maintains the National Guard Memorial Museum.

The duties include providing the Guard with unified representation before Congress and a variety of other functions to support a nationwide membership of nearly 45,000 current and former Army and Air National Guard officers.

General Hargett was the Tennessee adjutant general from 2002 through the end of 2009. In that capacity, he was responsible for the supervision of the Military Department of Tennessee, which includes the Tennessee Army National Guard, the Tennessee Air National Guard, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and the Tennessee State Guard.

In all, he has more than 47 years of military service. He enlisted in the Tennessee Army National Guard in 1962 as an infantry soldier and served in a variety of staff and leadership positions in his home state, in the Pentagon and overseas. During Operation Desert Shield/Storm, he was chief of operations and exercises at the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Va.

General Hargett holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tenn. He also completed the Defense Language Institute and the U.S. Army War College and holds the distinction of being the first National Guard officer to attend the NATO Defense College in Rome, Italy.

He also has served on the Pentagon’s Reserve Forces Policy Board, the Army Reserve Forces Policy Committee and was NGAUS chairman of the board―the association’s elected leader―from 2002 to 2004.

Just prior to his retirement, General Hargett received the Distinguished Service Medal, the U.S. military’s highest award for nonbattlefield service. The award citation noted his “masterful balance of compassion and strength.”

Among his many other military decorations are the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal and several Tennessee National Guard awards.

The general is married to the former Shirley Wilson. They have four children and seven grandchildren.